LeadershipTechniques > Leadership Principles
- Know Yourself and seek improvement -- even though finding a mentor.
- Be technical and tactically proficient: You must know the technical details with which those who are under you work, so that you can speak from a point of authority.
- Develop a sense of responsibility among your subordinates: tell them what to do, not how to do it. This philosophy of not micromanaging but managing through tasks and objectives is pervasive throughout the Marines -- and, for anyone who's been micromanaged, refreshing.
- Make sound and timely decisions. Decisiveness is tremendously important to the Marines; they emphasize that a reasonably good decision now, followed by action, is more likely to succeed than the perfect decision later.
- Set the example. Never tell your subordinates "do as I say, not as I do."
- Know your Marines and look out for their welfare. This is the #2 job, after getting the mission done. But remember that people will take care of themselves! You don't need to hold your Marines' hands every moment or watch over them every second, remember, nobody wants to die and everybody will try their darndest not to. Look out that your men are developing in the long term, and watch for whose head is not in the game. And remember that your men come before you; in the Marines, when a unit heads to the mess, the officer in charge makes sure that all of his or her Marines have their food before he or she sits down to eat.
- Seek responsibility and accept responsibility for your actions. Honest errors are acceptable and are learning experiences. "Try to think two pay grades above where you are."
- Ensure tasks are understood, supervised and accomplished. Supervised is the most important part of this -- walk around and talk to your Marines and see what they're doing. It's often instructive to talk to the most junior guy around and see if they know what's going on to see if your plans are trickling down to the guys who have to implement them. Make sure everyone knows WHY they're doing things! That makes sure that, when everything breaks down in the heat of action, the real objectives get accomplished. Don't forget -- "the secret of success is high standards!"
- Train your Marines as a team -- and teams always have leaders!
- Deploy your command in accordance with its capabilities.
This page last modified on March 08, 2005, at 09:12 PM
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